


Max's Christmas

by tobajuice (orphan_account)



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-22
Updated: 2015-11-22
Packaged: 2018-05-02 19:11:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5260340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/tobajuice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Max doesn't know what to get everyone for Christmas</p>
            </blockquote>





	Max's Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kaylee Ann Cragg](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Kaylee+Ann+Cragg), [Erica Zheng](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Erica+Zheng), [Nicolette Lau](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Nicolette+Lau), [me](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=me).



The trees were almost bald and the few leaves that still clung desperately to the branches swayed dangerously in the wind. She had imagined that the first winter after her release from Eris Juvenile Detention Facility would present her with a world whose ugliness was covered in a blanket of white, but now Max didn’t know what she was thinking back then. 

Yes, the streets were caked in snow and the trees looked like they were dusted in icing sugar but the world somehow managed to defile even that. Everything was trampled on and covered with black tracks, soiled. It pissed her off, more that she had imagined a cliché scenario than anything. Winter. It bit at her nose, clouded her vision, froze her blood and made everything numb. It was everything she could hope for and despise at the same time. 

Blowing about the city like the wind had only been able to give her that sense of wanderlust for so long before she realised that she had no idea what to get everyone for Christmas. Dove had clearly stated that no one would accept hand cream or any facial product of any kind, “food is not a gift”, and none of them seemed interested in old-fashioned mix tapes.

The vibration of her phone shocked her; it was so cold she was surprised she could still feel anything. Max reached into her back pocket to pull out the perfectly rectangle-d device. It was a message from Ben, the Head of Security at Sherman Towers where she used to work. 

Ben: I got the tape. You can come get it now.

Straightforward. A reason why he is one of her favourite people in the world. Not enough people are straightforward nowadays. 

Max: I’ll be there in 15 min

She picked up her pace to match the people speeding toward the train station. Max felt a rush of excitement shoot through her and honestly; it had been a while since she had last felt anything. She didn’t even mind that it was peak hour and the train cabin was stuffed like a turkey. 

Getting out of the train station was more or less the equivalent of taking off a corset to Max. She could finally breathe properly again. Ben was leaning against the side of the building waiting for her, a brown paper envelope in his hand. Max jogged over as soon as she spotted him and wrapped her arms around his potbelly. 

Ben patted her head. “Here,” he handed her the envelope. “Now go home, it’s freezing out here.”

Max quickly said her thanks and goodbye, wishing him a merry Christmas somewhere in the jumble of words that fell out of her mouth. 

~

Asphodel Mansion was the perfect home for her. It was secluded and abandoned, giving the residents plenty of privacy. Now if only it was easier to get to. Max had to make her way to the edge of Republic Park where there was an old brick wall covered in climber plants behind the thick bushes. The garden wall was low enough to scale but it was covered in snow and she didn’t want to risk slipping. If you looked close enough, you could spot something wooden just behind the wisterias. Max gently pulled aside the purple flowers to open the door and slipped through quickly. She exhaled as she walked down the path through the field. To the right were the flowers. Daisies, dandelions, edelweiss, ericas, red spider lilies, vintage pink roses and Calypso’s own breed of blue peonies. To the left were the vegetable and fruit patch, which had already been picked. In the summer, the tomatoes, potatoes, blueberries and strawberries grew large and perfectly ripe. In the autumn, the apples rained from the tree because they were all too lazy to go pick them. 

Max didn’t bother looking forward as she walked; the sun setting over the flower field is always a captivating sight. The sides of her lips curved upwards slightly as she entered the tunnel of beech, birch, holly and willow, noting a single Japanese maple they had planted together when they first moved there. It wasn’t really dark yet so the solar-powered fairy lights weren’t turned on but she reminded herself to do so once she reached the mansion. 

The Asphodel Mansion finally came into view. It wasn’t as large as the haunted ones in movies but it was still far bigger than the average three-story house. She remembered how run down it was when they first found it. Some of the outer walls and ceiling were gone, broken furniture was littered everywhere, an inch of dust covered everything and several species of flora had made the abandoned ruins its home. They had managed to salvage the place by filling the missing walls and ceiling with double-paned glass, installing indoor plumbing and decorating the interior in a Tumblr-worthy style; resulting in a somewhat contemporary structure. Raven had even managed to buy the land from the government since they didn't have any use for it. 

Using whatever strength she had left in her numb arms, Max pulled open the heavy wooden door. She kicked off the snow stuck on her boots before placing them back inside her section of the shoe closet full of Doc Marten’s. Calypso was already in the kitchen making dinner, Nephilim was at the dining table – that they have never actually used to eat at - studying with Dionysus and Dove, Raven and Teddy were napping on the couch, and Ignatius was working at the desktop. 

“Hey, Max. Where did you go?” Nephilim asked. 

The other two lifted their heads from their books and all three of them stared at her expectantly. “I went to see the head security guard at the office.”

Dion was next to respond, “oh. Well, she’s cooking spaghetti and meatballs tonight.”

“Should be done in another five minutes,” Calypso cut in.

Max nodded her head, “okay”, before two-stepping up the stairs to the third floor. She wanted to make the attic her bedroom but with everyone so deeply invested in art, all of them agreed it would be better to turn it into a studio instead. The door clicked shut as she tossed the envelope onto the bed and shrugged off her coat. She would have to watch it later. 

The CD contained the video of a certain Mr. Herman Sherman being burnt alive, the source of the fire being his very own scented candles. At least he got to smell nice while dying. 

Calypso was already dishing out the food when Max reached the bottom of the stairs. As per usual, Raven and Ignatius put full concentration into eating. Beside them, Max, Calypso, Dion and Nephilim (with Dove joining in from time to time) were managing to keep up the conversation while filling their mouths. Raven was envious of that; he’d always been a messy eater. I should not be allowed to eat in public.

Dinner took longer to finish that day. Max wondered if it was because she might not have been ready to watch the video. Killing Herman was not exactly a rational decision; she just hated him so much (and so did most of her colleagues). She didn’t know what had compelled her to cut short his life but she did not regret it, so why was she having doubts about watching it?

The witching hour arrived and everyone had tucked themselves away in the darkness of their bedrooms, but no one was asleep. Max slipped the disk into her laptop and waited for the video to load. It showed the exact moment the gas was released into the office through the air vent and accelerated the burning of the lit candles. It happened so fast that Herman didn’t have time to react at all. She laughed at the sight of him letting out a blood-curling cry as flames engulfed him.

The icon for video editing software caught her attention. Needless to say, Max spent half the night trying to put in different songs. She had finally succeeded at editing the video to something worth sharing at around four in the morning but more importantly, she now had something to give to everyone for Christmas. 

Jesus’s birthday rolled around the following week, which resulted in a very jumpy Max. She dragged everyone out of their beds and pushed mugs of hot chocolate into their hands before ordering them to park their “asses on the couch”. With slightly shaky hands, she plugged the connector cable from the TV to her laptop and pressed play. 

Dion and Ignatius – neither of them morning people by any means – were shocked into full consciousness by the electric guitar cover of 12 Days of Christmas echoing through the living room. The loud wailing of the guitar coupled with the flashing animated Christmas trees and fiery explosions in the background were enough to give anyone of them an epileptic seizure. 

“So?” Max asked eagerly, her face pulled back into an excited grin. “What do you think of my Christmas gift to all of you?”

Without hesitation, Dove replied, “I have never felt more awake.”

“We should do this every year,” Calypso added.

Max’s head snapped toward the door the second the bell rang. Dove opened the door to reveal a shivering Akira, Avery and Sparrow. Their partners immediately led them to the TV where Max replayed the video. 

Sparrow had already made herself comfortable on Nephilim’s lap, sipping warm brown liquid from a cup Calypso had handed her. “Are you going to play this every year?” she asked.  
Avery rubbed Max’s hair affectionately, “you should. It’ll be a really great tradition.”

Max responded with one word, “definitely.”

Snow fell from the sky like leaves during autumn and covered everything in white; it remained untouched and pure. Christmas actually felt like Christmas for the first time in many years for all of them. It was cold on the outside but warm on the inside.


End file.
